Cancer Care Navigation Improves Timeliness of Treatment in Head and Neck Cancer.

Authors

Atif M Islam, Robert B Baldwin, Alec E Dallas, Brandon J Dyer, Alisa Vidwans, Emma Dunn, Chantell Preziosi, Samer T Elsamna, Julia Toman, Tara Mokhtari, Christopher J Nickel, Matthew Mifsud

Published in

Head & neck. Oct 15, 2026. Epub Oct 15, 2026.

Abstract

Timely access to oncologic care is critical for patients with head and neck cancer (HNC), yet delays in treatment remain widespread. We sought to determine whether implementation of a care navigation program was associated with improved timeliness.
Four hunded and four adult patients who underwent HNC resection with free flap reconstruction were retrospectively reviewed. The primary outcome was time to adjuvant therapy and disease-free survival.
Median [IQR] age was 64 [58-73] years and 133 (33%) were women. Significant interval decreases were observed from surgery to initiation of adjuvant radiotherapy (56 [39-83] vs. 45 [31-64] days, p = 0.004). Log-rank testing revealed no difference in disease-free survival between pre- and postprogram cohorts (p = 0.7695).
Implementation of a care navigation program was associated with significant reductions in time to treatment. These findings suggest that structured pathways can meaningfully improve oncologic care delivery for HNC patients.

PMID:
42877993
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 16 Oct 2026.

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